Martin Indyk and Naftali Bennett: A Fierce Contest of Ideas on Israel and the Peace Process at the 2014 Saban Forum

One of the highlights of the 2014 Saban Forum came on Saturday evening, in what was billed as a conversation on Israel’s future moderated by Martin Indyk, the vice president for Foreign Policy at Brookings who last year served as U.S. special envoy for Israeli–Palestinian negotiations. The featured speaker was Jewish Home Party chairman Naftali Bennett, who heads the Israeli economy ministry as well as the ministry of religious services, Jerusalem and diaspora affairs, and the discussion quickly morphed into a fierce debate between two profoundly divergent visions for advancing peace and security for Israel.

I could attempt to summarize the conversation here on the blog, or you could read the entire transcript here on the Saban Forum page, but neither would do justice to the intensity of the arguments put forward or the acuity of their respective rebuttals. For anyone interested in the future of Israel or the prospects for reviving peace talks with the Palestinians or the options for U.S. policy toward this protracted dispute, this discussion should not be missed.

I wrote a few weeks ago about the value of ferocious arguments and strenuous disagreements. Watching the sparring match between Indyk and Bennett reminded me yet again how important it is to engage with opposing views rather than simply disregard or reject them. Such impassioned, enlightened disagreements over difficult issues are in fact the hallmark of the annual Saban Forum — and a testament to the unique Israeli-American friendship and the values of candor and contestation that are engrained in both countries’ political culture.

For more on the Saban Forum — including video from each of the keynote addresses and discussions — please check the main Saban Forum 2014 site as well as our Markaz blog for analyses of the key issues at stake and summaries of the public events. This year’s Forum included addresses by Israeli Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog, Vice President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (via satellite), Secretary of State John Kerry, as well as a discussion between Saban Forum Chairman Haim Saban and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Still, before you click away, I urge you to watch the conversation embedded below.

Today’s sanctions were predictable after the Mueller indictment, which identified specific Russians involved with the troll factory...However, these individuals are small fish. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the so-called ‘Putin’s chef’ in charge of the Internet Research Agency, was already on the U.S. sanctions list for his activities in Ukraine. The administration deserves credit for following through on their promise to impose new sanctions, but much more still needs to be done to realistically deter Russia.